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Saturday Night Sasheer!

Saturday Night Live, renowned for having an abundance of funny-ish white guys, and quirky white girls on the show (recently, with the exception of Keenan Thompson and Jay Pharaoh ) has hired the first black, female personality in nearly 7 years, Ms. Sasheer Zamata!

My question; Is she deserving of this highly sought after spot on the popular show, or is she merely fulfilling the obvious color devoid, void? Flashback to the recent SNL episode featuring a distraught Kerry Washington having to play every black, female role on the show, the sketch called for Kerry’s visible annoyance in having to champion those roles, but something tells me, that was a genuine emotion. Meant as an act of self-deprecating humor, this sketch inadvertently shined light on the absence of color on SNL, specifically black women. As a fan of the show, and as a black man, I attentively keep track of black cast members, or lack-there-of. The most recent black inductee was Jay Pharaoh, and he’s only as good as his impressions, we need a back up to keep the progression rolling along smoothly!

The last black woman to be featured on the show was Maya Rudolph, in 2007. I know there are many, many, many comical black women out there (especially in NYC) in need of some Saturday night spotlight, what took you so long SNL? Whether or not this is a ploy to pacify SNL’s wanting, black audience, I’m interested to see what Sasheer’s got to offer, make us proud, we probably won’t get a shot for another 7 years.